Flashlights have come a long way in the last few years. I remember going on field training exercises in the Army, carrying a two-cell right angle flashlight and trying to see with it. I also remember buying one of the big Maglite flashlights and being thrilled with being able to see more than a dozen feet in front of me. But even those powerhouses have to take a back seat to what manufacturers are offering today. These flashlights first became popular with police departments, but have quickly spread into other markets, including the survival market. Tactical flashlights so far outperform...

Ask any survival instructor what the single most important tool or piece of gear to have for survival is and you’ll get the same answer; a knife. The knife is the universal tool, able to be used for a wide variety of different purposes. If you have a knife, you can start a fire, build a snare, make a shelter or defend yourself from an attacker. You can use it to make other tools and weapons, such as a bow. There is no other single piece of gear which can do as much for you as a knife can. In...

Ancient man lived off the land, making his own survival gear from what nature offered him. While all those old methods are still possible, trying to live that way is extremely time consuming. Take chipping or “knapping” arrowheads for example. An experienced knapper can make an average sized arrowhead in fifteen minutes, on a good day and working with good materials. However, it can take years to get to the point where one can knapp an arrowhead that quick. Modern day survival is largely centered around having the right survival gear to work with. Essentially that survival gear makes it...

Somewhere in the world, there’s a survival expert who doesn’t need anything to survive with. The rest of us need to have the right equipment and supplies. When we talk about prepping supplies, the first thing that most people think of is food and water. While those are certainly at the top of the list, they aren’t the only supplies that we need. Think about this for a moment; how many different things do you use in the course of a week? I’m not talking about things you use for your job, but things that you use for your life....

One of the biggest fights you will have in a survival situation is staying dry. Wet feet are a recipe for disaster. Walking long distances with wet feet will result in raw skin that could become extremely dangerous. Back in the first world war, soldiers suffered from something referred to as trench foot. It resulted in tissue death on the foot, which quickly became a serious, life-threatening issue. You could end up losing a leg caused by an infection from trench foot. A minor blister in a survival situation can quickly become very serious and make it very difficult for...